"Everybody wants to leave something behind them," says an ageing drag queen in Paris Is Burning. Jennie Livingston's documentary is that 'something'; a poignant, heartfelt tribute to a vibrant New York subculture and its flamboyant acolytes, captured on grainy celluloid, shortly before it got appropriated and streamlined by the mainstream. Inviting us behind the scenes at the city's secret 'drag balls' of the late 80s, Livingston presents an intoxicating world of high camp, higher heels and hilariously impractical fashions.

Madonna made a mint from "vogueing", the dramatic dance movement modelled on typical magazine poses. Paris Is Burning, however, shows where it all began: in the community halls and elk lodges of Harlem, where contestants from rival 'houses' would gather to compete in makeshift dress-up contests. It is, as one hopeful says, "like crossing through the looking glass". For all the lipstick, falsies and outrageous clobber, however, the director admirably avoids turning it all into one giant freak show.

"A RICH SOCIAL DOCUMENT"

More dubious, though, is the way her film soft-sells the harsher realities of its subjects' lives, downplaying the "mopping" (shoplifting) that procures them their extravagant gowns, and the prostitution that pays for everything else. "That's part of life when you're a transsexual in New York," says one gay man of another's shocking murder, while the pros and cons of having a sex change are dismissed with similar alacrity. Despite this, Paris Is Burning remains a rich, insightful social document from an age when a guy in a frock could still raise an eyebrow.

Paris Is Burning is released in UK cinemas on Friday 5th January 2007.